Has US President-elect Donald Trump softened his stand on H1-B visas?

NEW DELHI: Has US President-elect Donald Trump softened his stand on H1-B visas? That's the million dollar question - literally.
Trump didn't specifically mention the professional US work visas, but in an interview with Time magazine, he acknowledged that "we need workers" and added that the country is going to "have them coming in based to a certain extent on merit."
"We're going to have strong borders.But we're also going to have people coming across the borders because we need workers... But we're going to have people coming in, but we're also going to have them coming in based to a certain extent on merit," he told Time.
Since Trump's win in the November 8 elections, Indian IT companies' stocks and ratings have been hit - hard - as the markets have anticipated a more protectionist US technology visa program under his administration. If H-1B visas are limited, it would be a big blow for Indians who've been granted the highest number of such visas in the last many years. IT hotshots like Infosys, TCS and Wipro alone together accounted for 86,000 new H-1Bs between 2005 and 2014, Reuters reported.
Now, though, the US President-elect's comment about workers coming in "on merit" might just signal a slight softening.
"We have to be able to have people come in to our country, because that's good for all of us. It's good for them, but it's good for all of us," he told Time.
Having said that, Trump, in his interview, remained committed to his campaign stand on "illegal immigrants".
"We're going to build the wall. I'm going to build the wall. We're going to have strong borders... We're not going to have illegals coming in" he said, reiterating his much-reviled campaign promise about building a wall between the US and Mexico and "making Mexico pay for it."